Social Text 3.0

Social Text 3.0

Picking up on Jerry's Blog on Social Text 3.0

After hearing (and seeing) Alan's presentation on Social Text 3.0 I was surprised at how few of the features we are really taking advantage of. I am also skeptical of the usage of some of these by features by outside corporations. In his blog post, Jerry brings up some limitations of the People Feature. One question that was raised in class that I also take issue with is the idea of "following" people. The way ST appears to work, colleagues can "follow" each other without asking for permission, the idea being that everyone works for the same company and should have an open working relationship. In reality, I think this could get sticky - what if someone from an entirely different area of the company starts following someone else - does the company then need to set protocols around who can follow whom? In small companies this may make sense, but in larger more specialized firms, questions could be raised as to whether it is "necessary" for someone to follow someone else and see what they are working on.

In addition, I agree with Jerry that ST seems to be missing an important feature of social networking - the "instant messaging" type of communication that can be invaluable in a corporate setting. When I was consulting at GE, their in-house IM tool was a critical and highly accepted way for getting business done across the organization. If a company is using ST as a central repository for its business functions and content, it only makes sense that the tool provide the real-time benefits of networking and information sharing. For our class purposes, I think this feature would actually be useful, for mundane things such as coordinating snacks, to asking questions of each other when completing the NML assignments. The other advanced features don't seem as applicable - for now I would rather be "friends" with my classmates on facebook that "follow" then on Socialtext, but maybe that's just me being old-fashioned.

NPowerNY & Cloud Computing - the Sky is the Limit

After September 11th, my former employer, Accenture, sent a number of us to various organizations in the city to do pro-bono work. I ended up working at NPowerNY, a well-funded non-profit technology start-up focused on "ensuring all nonprofits can use technology to better serve their communities". The majority of my first few months at NPowerNY was focused on helping the non-profits in lower Manhattan get back in working order. We provided them with hardware, free (donated) software licenses, and IT contractors who could help reboot systems, find lost data, reroute cables, and work-around power outages, data shortages, and equipment failures. Most of these tiny organizations had no backup systems, old and outdated equipment, and no budget to dig themselves out of the black hole that was their IT infrastructure. Through the generosity of corporations, IT consultants, graduate students, and other non-profits, NPower amassed a collection of resources to help NYC NGO's get back on their feet.

Today NPower and its network of affiliates provide a much needed service for the non-profit sector, including a training and internship program for IT staffers, outsourced services such as help desk and IT consulting, and other training programs targeted at member needs. Just yesterday I received an email from them, asking me to complete a survey about a new product they want to role out - "Software as a Service" - essentially cloud computing for the non-profit sector. I could not help but think how useful this would have been after the devastation of 9/11. Cloud computing would have kept countless non-profits up and running, despite the loss of physical space. For many non-profits this would allow them to run faster, better, and more updated systems without having to continually purchase new servers and storage space - something that is not typically a priority in many grass-roots organizations. In addition, this would give new organizations the opportunity to quickly come up to speed and have an IT infrastructure without having to make large-scale capital investments. I think NPowerNY is going to get a big response to their new offering - at least I hope so - with this one the sky should be the limit!

NPowerNY